What’s Your Valuation?

With the recent beating of the markets, I’m sure your portfolio isn’t the only thing that’s getting affected. Your self-image is as well. We subscribe to the idea that “Price is what you pay, value is what you get.” but have we failed to apply that in ourselves? Are we allowing our networth to determine what our value is?

I believe just like stocks, we should view ourselves as assets as well. We have an intrinsic value, and a price (networth / salary). While we easily allow our networth / salary to determine our value, have we failed to consider that we could be an undervalued asset? Are we trading below our net asset value or currently priced at an extremely low P/E ratio? Most of us are convinced Efficient Market Hypothesis applies in our lives. We believe that everything has been effectively priced in and our current financial standing reflects our true value.

It shouldn’t be the case! We are not what our bank balance or stock portfolio says we are worth! Let’s not forget, there are tangible assets and INTANGIBLE assets. While the tangible assets like our bank balance or portfolio may paint a picture of us, we must not discount the importance of our intangible assets! Our intangible assets includes our character, our values and our brand equity. Do not discount the importance of your intangible assets! While your tangible assets is synonymous to the tip of an iceberg, your intangible assets forms 90% of the iceberg! It’s your secret weapon to truly show if you can sink a Titanic or simply be crushed.

All in all, let us not be dismayed by short-term fluctuations in our tangible assets (bank balance / portfolio) or events in our lives that attempt to identify what we are worth. When we keep building our intangible assets, time will reveal our true worth! It’s okay if we’re underpaid now, because we won’t be underpaid forever as we continually build our intangible assets!